Missed Connection
by litvirg
Summary: Merlin is stuck in an airport, trying to get to Ireland. Arthur just wants to cheer him up. There are duck statues and bright pink t-shirts and Disney doodles.


Merlin was in line for Chinese food. Again. He'd been stuck in this airport for three days, and had already eaten Chinese food four times. The stupid airline gave them meal vouchers that only covered about seven dollars' worth of food, so the Chinese food place was his only choice. It was either that or pay fifteen bucks for a stale turkey sandwich, and, really, no thanks.

"Back again?" the man behind the counter asked. Merlin just nodded and asked for the special number four and sadly handed over his meal voucher. Mike, the man behind the counter, must have felt bad for him, because Merlin spotted him throwing in an extra eggroll to his order, and then handing it over as if nothing had happened.

"Hope we don't see you again soon!" Mike said sympathetically.

Merlin grimaced. "Yeah," he sighed. "Me too."

Merlin made his way back over to the gate where his most recent flight was delayed, sitting a few seats away from the rest of his travel group. He pulled out the extra eggroll to nibble on while he did the required daily call to his mother.

"Merlin!" His mom answered on the first ring. "I thought you would be on a plane to Ireland right now!"

"Well," Merlin began. "Technically it was a plane to Germany and then a plane to Ireland, but the first flight was delayed and now it looks as if we'll have to find something else because by the time we land in Germany, we'll have missed our connecting flight." For the third time, he didn't add.

"I'm sure it will all work out, sweetheart," his mother assured him. Merlin wasn't about to hold his breathe.

"Yeah, okay Mum. But I'd better go, I'm sure they will have a new plan soon," he lied. "Love you."

"Love you too, Merlin."

He hung up and picked at his food again. The chicken was impossibly dry for being smothered in so much sauce, and the rice was stale. He thought he would have gotten used to it by now, but it actually seemed to be getting worse and worse with each bite. He looked longingly over at the deli stand, which would undoubtedly serve yet more stale overpriced food, but it would at least be different stale, overpriced food.

Reluctantly he kept eating the food in front of him, turning his gaze decidedly away from the deli stand and toward the gate at which he would not be boarding a plane in twenty minutes. He watched as the trip organizer gesticulated wildly at the woman behind the desk, while she clearly had no power to help him. Merlin almost felt bad for her, but then he remembered he had slept on the airport floor and she at least got to go home at the end of the day. Instead he frowned a little less with each outlandish wave of the man's arms and finished his unsatisfying meal.

After throwing his trash away, Merlin decided he needed a walk. A few of the others on the trip had his number, they could text him if any big changes happened, but he couldn't be in that gate any longer. He didn't want to sit and watch yet another line of people board a plane that he yet again would not be boarding.

He made his way to the makeshift bookshop across from the small coffee stand. He saw a few of his travel companions standing around the coffee stand, and he nodded and smiled feebly in their direction. They didn't notice.

In the book store he made his way around to the travel section. He found this a bit ridiculous, to have a travel section in an airport. Everyone in an airport was already traveling somewhere. Why would they need to buy a guidebook for the place they were currently heading to?

But he picked out three of the books on Ireland and sat down with them in the corner by the travel section. He flipped to the places he knew his group was supposed to see, trying to imagine himself standing atop the Cliffs of Moher, or walking down lamp lit streets in Dublin or Galway. He felt a tear prickle in his eye, and he swatted it away with the back of his hand.

"If you want that book, you'll have to buy it. You can't just sit in the corner and read it," a woman's voice called.

Merlin glanced up, but the voice did not belong to the person standing in front of him. In front of him was beautiful blonde, around his age, and most decidedly male. He gave Merlin a pitying look and nodded towards the woman behind the counter.

"Right," Merlin said, slamming the book shut. "Sorry." He shoved his books back on the shelf and made his way out of the shop.

Of course they wouldn't let him read a freaking book even though he was stranded in this godforsaken airport. If he wanted to entertain himself he'd have to shell out even more money yet, and he really just couldn't afford it. Almost all his money went to this trip and he needed to save some for when he finally got to Ireland. He couldn't waste thirty bucks on an overly-expensive book.

He stormed past the window of the shop, in the opposite direction of his gate and found a group of cushioned benches secluded by several statues of ducks that surrounded them. It was quiet, so he stretched out on a bench and threw his arm over his head.

This was stupid. He'd just nearly cried over a guidebook of all things. He drew his arm away from his eyes, and, keeping his eyes closed, worked his hands through his hair until it stood up at odd ends. He wished there was something to do in this ridiculous place.

Hearing a cough from right in front of his bench, he opened his eyes. It was the blonde from the bookstore.

"Bad day?"

Merlin sat straight up, and ran his hands over his hair trying to smooth it back to normalcy. The blonde, seeing this gave a low chuckle. "That's a bit of an understatement," Merlin sighed. The blonde nodded towards the seat on the bench next to Merlin, waiting for Merlin's permission to sit there. Merlin scooted over and he sat down. "Fantastically ruined weekend is more accurate."

"Yeah, I'd gathered that when you looked so distraught over an Ireland guidebook." He gave a sympathetic smile. "I'm Arthur by the way," he held his hand out.

Merlin took his hand. "Merlin," he said. "I don't normally cry over travel books."

Arthur barked out a laugh. "I should hope not. Or else what I'm about to do next will be rather awkward."

Merlin cocked an eyebrow, confused as Arthur pulled a book out from the bag he was carrying. He gripped it tight, not letting Merlin see it and avoided Merlin's glance when he spoke.

"It's not the one you were looking at, I figured that one would just make you upset. But I thought it was a tad over dramatic for that woman to kick you out of the store, so I grabbed this for you." He grimaced and handed the book over to Merlin.

It was a guidebook to Disney World. Merlin wasn't any less confused. "You seemed really upset," Arthur continued. "And, uh, well everyone I know is always cheered up by all things Disney, so I thought this might help…" he began to trail off, but at Merlin's lack of reaction he reached to take the book back. "It was stupid, I'm sorry, you don't have to take it—"

Merlin yanked it away from Arthur's arm and held it close to his chest. "You can't take it back, you've already given it to me! I want it, really. Thank you," Merlin smiled, running his fingers over the cover. He stopped when he got to the price tag. "Arthur this was thirty dollars! I should give you some money…" he started rummaging through his pockets, trying to find his wallet, but Arthur stilled his hand.

"Don't worry about it. It was a gift." He flashed Merlin a smile, and then stretched his legs out and folded his arms behind his head. Merlin, following his lead, uncurled his legs from under himself and stretched out as well. They sat there stretched out in silence for a few minutes until Arthur, unable to keep the thought to himself blurted out:

"What the fuck is with the duck statues?"

"You can't just give everyone in the book a mustache, Arthur!" Merlin giggled as he used his own sharpie to give the prince, who in the picture was bent over talking to a little girl, a huge cloud of gas coming from his butt.

"Ew, Merlin that's just gross," Arthur huffed out through laughter as he thickened the mustache on Snow White. "And I don't put mustaches on everyone. Just the really lame people."

"Why've you given Ursula long black hair?"

Arthur looked up at him, grinning. "To make her look like my sister."

"I didn't know you had a sister," Merlin said as he shaded in the gas bubble.

"Half-sister. Morgana. She's nineteen as well." He sat back, stretching his arms out behind him and leaned away from the book. Merlin waited for him to say something else, but he looked suddenly distracted, so Merlin dragged the book closer to him and started flipping through the pages on his own. He flipped without thought, casually glancing up at Arthur to see if he was going to go back to drawing anytime soon.

He chuckled when he saw what was on the page he had flipped to and began doodling determinedly, shielding the book from Arthur's view. This caught Arthur's attention.

"What on Earth are you drawing?" He reached for the book but Merlin slapped his hand away.

"You can't look until it's finished, or you'll ruin it!"

Arthur looked skeptical, and a bit disappointed, but he dropped his hand. "How will I ruin it by just looking at it?"

"You'll see," Merlin winked.

While Merlin drew, Arthur watched him draw. He made sure to avoid looking too closely at any dark black lines he could see through Merlin's arm shield, and instead focused on Merlin himself. First his hand and how he gripped the sharpie so loosely, as if he had full control over what it did without even trying. Then he watched his face. There was a slight blush creeping up his neck into his cheeks, but his eyes were dark and focused. He kept slipping his tongue through his teeth to run along his lips nervously, and he nibbled constantly on his lower lip.

Arthur tore his gaze away.

"Done." Merlin grinned up at him, and then handed the book over. Looking down at the page, Arthur couldn't help but bark out a laugh.

It was him. Merlin had flipped to the page that had a picture of the Sword in the Stone from the Magic Kingdom, and had drawn Arthur pulling it out, a small crown on his head, and speech bubbles in the background yelling "All Hail King Arthur!"

Arthur suddenly blushed, looking at how accurate the doodle of him was. "You didn't tell me you could really draw. Here I am doodling mustaches on everything, and you're an actual artist!"

"So? I don't care if you can draw. I like the mustaches."

Arthur grabbed his own sharpie and pulled the book into his lap, blocking it from Merlin's eyes. He sketched quickly, frowning the whole time, but when he finished, he proudly, if slightly nervously, presented his picture to Merlin.

Merlin doubled over in laughter. "Arthur, that's fantastic!" He giggled madly. It was a picture of him (well, a stick figure, but you could tell it was him from the skinny face and massive ears) wearing a wizard's hat and a staff.

"Well, you can't really have King Arthur without Merlin the Sorcerer, can you?"

Merlin grabbed the book back, and after that it became a sort of game. They drew each other into the rest of the pages (but still made sure to add the occasional mustache or fart cloud) until they had covered the entire book with little Arthur and Merlin doodles.

"Now we need a new book!" Merlin joked. "Too bad they are the most ridiculously overpriced guidebooks in the entire world, or else I'd go buy us one."  
Arthur opened his mouth to say something, but Merlin's phone went off before he could get a word out.

"Merlin," Sefa, another person from his travel group, said. "They've asked us all to gather at the gate, they've some news apparently."

"Erm, okay," Merlin glanced up at Arthur who was watching him with curiosity. "Give me a few minutes I'll be there. Thanks Sefa." He ended the call.

"Girlfriend?" Arthur raised his eyebrows.

Merlin laughed. "No, not really the girlfriend type. That was Sefa, she's in the same travelling group as me. Apparently they have some news for us, so I better go see what it is. I shouldn't be too long," he hesitated, looking up at Arthur. "Will you be around still in about half an hour?"

Arthur flashed him a smile. "Of course. I'll keep the ducks company until you get back."

"Great," Merlin said picking up the book. "I'll see you in a bit then."

Merlin was sprinting back to the ducks an hour later. The meeting went long after the trip organizers turned up twenty five minutes after they asked everyone to meet them, and then they droned on and on, relaying everything that had already happened over the weekend, which was stupid because how could any of them have forgotten, before explaining that they'd be in the airport overnight again, but would be flying home in the morning. No Ireland.

Merlin had quickly called his mom when they found that out, but he couldn't remember anything she said, he was just trying to hurry up and get back to the duck statues. Arthur might not be there anymore, he could be on a plane to almost anywhere. And Merlin didn't even have his phone number.

He was out of breath and panting by the time he got back to the ducks, but he didn't sit down. He circled the benches looking for Arthur. But he wasn't there.

Merlin felt his stomach sink. He wanted to throw up, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream at himself for being so stupid. Arthur could have been flying anywhere, and Merlin hadn't even bothered to ask. Merlin would never see him again. He threw himself on the same bench he had earlier, draping an arm over his eyes again, willing them not to cry.

"Should I go buy you another Disney book?" Merlin heard from above him. He shot up, nearly knocking heads with Arthur, who had been leaning over him, inspecting his face.

"Arthur! I thought you'd left and boarded a plane!" Merlin smiled broadly, not caring that he was maybe showing too much emotion over seeing a man he just met a few hours ago.

"No, my sister called and my reception was spotty over here, so I had to wander off for a bit." He waved his phone, as if proving his point. "Your meeting ran long, is good news on the horizon?"

And then Merlin finally took the time to think over what had just happened. He'd been distracted through the entire meeting, just waiting to get back to Arthur that he hadn't fully registered what had happened. His face crumpled when he realized he really wouldn't be going to Ireland.

"No, uh," Merlin's voice cracked. "No it's not."

Arthur sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into his chest. "I'm sorry, Merlin. If anyone deserves the trip of their dreams, it's you."

Merlin wiped at his eyes, but it didn't help. He turned his head into Arthur's chest and cried a little harder. After a few minutes, he took his head away, embarrassed at the wet spot it left on Arthur's t-shirt.

"This is stupid, I shouldn't be making this into such a big deal." Merlin swatted his eyes with the back of his hand. "I just—it took me so long to save up the money, and it was supposed to be my chance for something good, because home is fine, but I've really only got my mom, and this was just—it was supposed to work. That's all. And now I have to go back to the way things were."

"That's not stupid, Merlin." Arthur rubbed his arm and Merlin felt stupid and grateful and happy that, even though everything he had been working toward the last few months had been ruined, he had at least met Arthur. He clutched the Disney guidebook close to his chest and let Arthur hold him for longer than was necessary, until he remembered the other thing the trip organizers had told him.

"There is one good thing," he began, sitting up. "The airline has promised to reimburse us all for any money spent in the airport."

"Okay…" Arthur said slowly.

Merlin grinned wildly and grabbed Arthur's wrist. "Come on," he said excitedly, and then abruptly stopped. "Unless—unless you have to go?" He frowned.

Arthur shifted Merlin's grip so it slid from his wrist and entangled their fingers. "Lead on," he smiled.

Merlin was holding up a bright pink t-shirt with neon tie-dye lettering that said "I Love New York" and pressed it into Arthur's chest. "I think this is just your style."

Arthur raised an eyebrow, but took the shirt anyway. "Alright. I'll wear it. But, only if you wear these." He held up fuzzy green "I Love New York" pajama bottoms that had big white poufy cuffs at both feet.

Grimacing, Merlin grabbed the pajama bottoms away from Arthur. Along with the shirt and the pants, they bought enough snacks to feed about 20 people, another Disney guidebook, two I love New York blankets, smoothies and pretzels from the good pretzel stand. And a giant Toblerone bar, at Arthur's request.

"It's just like the one that Joey ate in that one episode of Friends, Merlin!"

"Do you even like Toblerone?"

"Well, sort of." Arthur blushed "But come on, Merlin! Friends! Everybody loves Friends!"

Merlin bought two.

They brought their spoils and spread the new blankets out in the alcove of benches by the duck statues, laying out on their stomachs, doodling in the new book, nibbling at their pretzels and sipping their smoothies.

When the pretzels were gone, Merlin rummaged through the bag and grabbed the bright pink t-shirt and threw it at Arthur.

"You promised," he smiled.

Arthur nodded, reaching for the shirt. "Don't forget your end of that bargain." Arthur wiggled his eyebrows. He stripped his shirt off, and Merlin meant to look away, but with the thought that he may never see Arthur again, he decided to enjoy the view. He watched as Arthur stretched the small shirt over his broad chest, and looked away blushing when  
Arthur caught him staring.

Arthur just looked at him expectantly, gesturing to the pajama bottoms. Merlin was thankful they were behind the statues, so the only person to see him strip down to his briefs was Arthur. He quickly pulled the ridiculous pajamas on, and sat back down, neck and ears beet red.

Arthur laughed as Merlin threw himself back on the blankets. "I think those suit you perfectly Merlin."

"Oh, shut up."

Merlin and Arthur laid sprawled over the blankets, newly doodled book cast aside with the first one, food forgotten.

"So, are you going to go to art school?" Arthur asked, interrupted their silence.

Frowning, Merlin answered. "I don't think so. At least not for a while. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I'm not going to college in the fall, I'm taking a year off."

Arthur leaned up on his elbows, face perking up. "Me too," he smiled.

"Too bad you don't live in Ealdor," Merlin lamented.

"Ealdor? Little town, upstate New York? I live in Albion, it's only a twenty minute drive from there!"

Merlin couldn't contain himself. "No way!" He pushed Arthur's shoulder, causing Arthur to topple over and crush the bag of chips next to him.

"Ah, look what you've done. These are completely crushed."

"We can buy more later if we need to." Merlin didn't care about the chips. He wanted to use the crushed up chips as confetti (but wouldn't out of respect for the cleaning staff) to rain over him and Arthur. Arthur lived twenty minutes away from him. This was too lucky. He was never this lucky.

"What's that ridiculous smirk for?"

Merlin tried to reign in his features to resemble something less manic, something more normal, something at the respectable level of excitement. "Nothing," he mumbled. "I'm just not usually this lucky, that's all."

Arthur looked confused. "Lucky? You've been stuck in an airport for four days, and now you don't even get to go to Ireland like you wanted."

"Well, Ealdor suddenly has renewed appeal." He pulled the Disney book toward himself and traced his fingers along the gold lettering of the front. Arthur lived twenty minutes away from him. He was going to see Arthur again. Merlin flipped onto his back and stretched his arms out under his head.

"Ah, finally" Arthur said. "A pillow." He plopped his head onto Merlin's stomach.

Merlin felt his heart racing. He hoped Arthur didn't hear it as well. Arthur could probably feel in, it was pounding in his chest, thumping against Arthur's skull with each beat. He had to stop himself from holding his breath, because Arthur would definitely feel that, and instead focused on breathing deeply and evenly. He felt Arthur's hand brush his thigh as Arthur threw it haphazardly to his side, and he hoped Arthur didn't feel the involuntary hitch in his breath.

"What's so bad about home normally?" Arthur suddenly asked, peering up at Merlin through the blond hair falling over his forehead.

Merlin sighed. "Nothing's wrong really. I just don't really fit in, I guess."

Arthur didn't answer right away. His brows were furrowed and he seemed to forget all about Merlin, or at least Merlin would have thought that if Arthur's hand hadn't moved back to his leg where he was tracing the "I Love New York" pattern over and over, absentmindedly.

"I can't imagine you not fitting in anywhere, Merlin."

"I guess you just caught me on a good day then," Merlin whispered.

"I really don't think so."

Arthur moved from tracing the lettering to thoughtlessly running his fingers along the soft fabric. Hesitantly, Merlin pried one of his hands from under his own head, and moved it to gingerly play with the hair falling over Arthur's face.

"Where were you?" he asked Arthur.

"Hmm?"

"Where did you fly in from?" Merlin clarified. "Or have you yet to get there? You never said if you were flying home, or flying away from it."

"Oh, um." Arthur coughed. "No, I'm flying home. My sister moved to London on her own when we turned eighteen, I visit her every so often. I think I probably miss her more than she misses me."

Merlin couldn't imagine someone not missing Arthur. "I'm sure that's not true."

"No, it is. I know she loves me, but sometimes I remind her too much of our dad, and he's kind of the reason she left. They have, well, a difficult relationship. Probably because they  
are so damn similar and don't realize it, so they butt heads all the time."

Merlin stayed quiet for a long moment. The subject of family seemed to be tricky territory with Arthur, and he wanted to be careful with what he said.

"Well," he finally settled on saying. "I'd miss you if I went to London."

Arthur yawned and turned his head into Merlin's stomach. "So don't go to London without me," he mumbled.

And with that swirling about his head, Merlin followed Arthur's lead and fell asleep.

Merlin woke up with no idea how much time had passed. He scrambled around trying to find his phone, but Arthur's was within reach, so he made a grab at that, knocking down a slip of paper that had been pinned between the phone and the guidebooks. It had only been a few hours since he'd fallen asleep. He set Arthur's phone back, and reached for the paper that had landed on Arthur's arm.

It was a plane ticket.

Specifically it was a plane ticket to London. That had left three hours ago.

"Arthur!" he shook the other man awake. "Arthur wake up, you've missed your flight! Come on, we've got to go speak to the airline, see if they can get you on another flight soon." He stood up, and took off toward the gate that the ticket said, uncaring about his rumpled appearance or his fluffy pajama bottoms.

"Merlin!" Arthur was jogging behind him. "Merlin, wait."

"No, the longer you wait the harder it'll be for them to find you something, trust me. You don't want to be stuck here for four days."

"I'm not going to be stuck here for four days. Merlin will you just—" he grabbed Merlin's elbow and spun him around to face him. "Stop for a moment."

"Arthur, I feel terrible, I've made you miss your flight if we just—"

Arthur groaned rubbing his hands over his face. "Merlin, please, shut up."

Merlin closed his mouth.

"Relax. I'm not going to be stuck here for four days. I'm not going to London anymore."

"What?"

"Earlier, when you came back from your meeting, I was on the phone with Morgana, my sister, do you remember?" Merlin nodded. "I called her to tell her that I couldn't make it anymore, something had come up and we'd just have to find another time for me to come visit."

"Okay," Merlin said slowly. "Erm, what came up, exactly?"

Arthur shot him an incredulous look. "Merlin, you idiot." He grabbed Merlin's face on either side, and crashed their lips together. It was hard at first, confusing with too many teeth.

But then Arthur softened, sucking and licking, moving slowly, before he pulled away.

"Will you come back now?" Arthur pleaded, running his fingers down the back of Merlin's neck. Merlin nodded dumbly, grabbing Arthur's hand and dragging him back to the ducks.

The next morning, Merlin woke to his phone going off. It was a text from Sefa, telling him to get to the gate, they were boarding soon. He scribbled his phone number in one of the guidebooks and then shoved it onto Arthur's chest, jostling him awake.

"I have to go, I'm boarding soon." He kissed him quickly, and ran his hand through the short blonde strands one last time. "I'll see you soon," he promised and then scooped his own book up and ran to his gate.

Once he had finally boarded the plane, he sat jiggling in his seat, dreading the flight away from Arthur, but anxious to be back in Ealdor, where he would be seeing Arthur again soon. The seat next to his was still unoccupied, and he wondered if he'd be lucky enough to score an empty seat next to him.

He shut his eyes, deciding that sleep would make the time go faster. He felt a body thump in the seat next to his. Figures, he wouldn't be that lucky.

"Thank god you woke me," a voice murmured lowly in his ear. "Or else I would have missed our flight home."

Merlin's eyes whipped open to see Arthur staring back at him, smiling.

Maybe he was just that lucky.


End file.
